Local area networks (LANs) are typically separated into two broad categories: personal/home networks and enterprise/corporate networks. These two categories may also be called, respectively, unmanaged and managed networks. In this context, a managed network may be one comprising one or more network management components such as domain controllers, AAA server (authentication, authorization, and accounting server), or other networking devices which perform network management tasks such as, for example, authentication, whereas unmanaged networks lack such components.
The two categories of LANs are similar in many respects, but may be implemented differently in their environments. For example, a home LAN typically is a wireless LAN (WLAN) that may have a single wireless access point or a handful of wireless access points, while corporate LANs may have a great number of wireless and/or access points and may be a part of or be connected to a managed network comprising network management components such as domain controllers.
Conventionally, different types of hardware may be used with the two categories of LANs. This difference may be seen, for example, in the implementation of a gateway for the networks. A gateway is a piece of network equipment which serves to connect two networks by operating as the entry/exit point for data entering or leaving a network. In a home WLAN, a single piece of equipment may act as both a wireless access point and as a gateway, while a corporate LAN may have wireless access points which are connected through a computer network to a gateway separate from the wireless access points.
Given the different types of hardware, client devices seeking to connect to a LAN may conventionally identify home LANs and corporate LANs in different ways. For example, a wireless access point for a home WLAN may be identified, for example, by a Medium Access Control (MAC) address of the gateway of the wireless access point (i.e., the Gateway MAC), whereas corporate WLANs, having a plurality of wireless access points, may be identified by a unique identifier for the network, such as a globally unique identifier (GUID) for the enterprise/managed network. In a network managed by the Windows Operating System from the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., this GUID may be a forest GUID representing a unique value for the enterprise network and all information associated with the enterprise network, a domain GUID representing a unique value for a domain on the network with which all or a portion of the equipment on the enterprise network is associated, or any other suitable value.
Client devices may be configured to present a user with a list of nearby WLANs from which the user may select a WLAN to which to connect, or may alternatively or additionally be configured to connect to specific WLANs automatically when those WLANs are available. Wireless access points may be configured to transmit periodically in a publicly-broadcast beacon transmission a network name for the wireless access point in the form of a Service Set Identifier (SSID). A client device configured to connect automatically may be configured to examine the beacons it receives for a specified network name or SSID. If the client device finds a wireless access point meeting the specified criteria, it may connect to the wireless access point without a user's selection.